Beautiful ancient stonework on the steep Stairway of the Dead at Sacra di San Michele, Turin, Piedmonte, Italy

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The Sacra di San Michele, sometimes known as Saint Michael’s Abbey, is a religious complex on Mount Pirchiriano, situated on the south side of the Val di Susa overlooking the villages of Avigliana and Chiusa di San Michele, northern Italy. The abbey, which for much of its history came under Benedictine rule, is now entrusted to the Rosminians. A special regional law acknowledges it as the "Symbolic monument of the Piedmont region". According to some historians, in Roman times a military stronghold existed on the current location of the abbey, commanding the main road leading to Gaul from Italy. Later, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Lombards built a fortress here against the Frankish invasions. The church's high altar is known of the early years of the abbey. The oldest extant account is that of a monk, William, who lived here in the late 11th century and wrote a Chronicon Coenobii Sancti Michaelis de Clusa. He sets the foundation of the abbey in 966, but, in another passage, the same monk maintains that the construction began under the pontificate of Sylvester II (999-1003).

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Size: 4874px × 4219px
Location: Sacra di San Michele, Mount Pirchiriano, Turin, Piedmonte, Italy
Photo credit: © ©Woodward/Woody / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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